Album Review: Hautajaisyö – Surun Paino

BBand: Hautajaisyö
Title: Surun Paino
Label: Inverse Records
Release date: March 20th, 2026
Country: Finland
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording

Album Review: Hautajaisyö – Surun Paino via Inverse Records by Sílvia

“Surun Paino” (“The weight of grief”) is the 5th full-length album by Hautajaisyö, and it’s a skull-crushing release, in the vein of the music they usually deliver. These Finns play a mix of death and thrash metal, offering infectious riffs, drums played at fast and relentless tempos, and vocals consisting on bestial growls performed in a very menacing way.

The album opens with the namesake title track, and it’s the longest song, more than 5 minutes of pure aggression. The riffs go along with the relentless pounding of drums, which offer a big repertoire of beats, rolls and kicks, and are very technical. There’s another voice that goes screaming besides the growls, and it adds a tad of extra bestiality to this song.

As the album progresses, so does the constant feeling of being run over by a massive, destructive machine. The guitars (Sami Lustig) play aggressive and super infectious riffs; the bass (Simo Pesonen) creates an overwhelming base of deep, rumbling notes; drums (Teemu Roth) are mercilessly pounded, with a steaming bass pedal, sometimes sounding as if the drummer has more than four limbs; and as for the vocals (Janne Partanen), well… his animalistic growls are enough to annihilate your senses.

“Kuusi kantajaa” (“Six carriers”) is a banger, the main riff is one of those that will live in your head for a looong time. It’s a song that would go to the “Most infectious song of the year” competition, if this existed. And even if I’m not Finnish, I can’t help but sing along the chorus:

“Hautaan saattaa, kuusi kantajaa
Arkkua painavaa, haurasta vainajaa”

(“To the grave, six pallbearers
The coffin weighs, the fragile deceased”)

To me, one of the most destructive songs is “Lyhyt matka hautaan” (“A short journey to the grave”), it’s the shortest track in the album and maybe the most intense one, not giving a simple moment to take a breath (well… it’s not that you can breathe a lot with the rest of the songs). It’s a fast and furious display of all the musicians abilities, there’s a dark and dense atmosphere floating all through it. And, the bass does a great work in this track, just sayin’…

You can expect pure aggression and high intensity in each of these eight tracks. This is an album that keeps you thrashing from start to finish. 9/10

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9/10  Epic Storm
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